Yahoo Lifestyle Performers of the Week: Lee Jung-jae and Gong Yoo
THE PERFORMER | Lee Jung-jae and Gong Yoo
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THE SHOW | Squid Game
THE EPISODE | “Bread and Lottery” (Dec. 26, 2024)
THE PERFORMANCE | It took two long years and it made a tiny dent in his many stacks of won, but Seong Gi-hun finally came face-to-face, for a second time, with the Recruiter, in Squid Game‘s Season 2 premiere.
Boy, was it worth the wait.
Leading up to the not-so-happy reunion, Lee’s Gi-hun was a man devoid of joy, despite having a pallet of cash tucked away in a dingy hotel room. Nor was he angry. He was just… tired. And yet determined, as much as when we last saw him, to seek out the Front Man and end the games once and for all. For everyone.
Gong’s Recruiter, meanwhile, was quite the opposite. Whether challenging wholly unsuspecting people to life-changing games of ddakji, or inviting vagrants to choose between bread or a scratch-off lottery ticket, he came off as a man without a care in the world. A grinning puppet master toiling for the puppet master.
The Recruiter was his typical calm, cool, collected self when he surfaced at Gi-hun’s hotel to give his pursuer what he sought, a parley. Gi-hun in turn feigned simply wanting to “thank” the man who set in motion his financial windfall, though the way Lee said as much through gritted teeth, you felt him waiting to pounce.
As the Recruiter launched into his own backstory, of rising from one of the game’s corpse-burning guards to well-tailored salesman, Gong’s face was practically beatific — in stark contrast to the ugly thoughts he spewed. “These things aren’t human. They’re just trash, useless. They have no purpose in this world. That’s what I kept telling myself for years,” he recalled, leading up to the matter-of-fact reveal that, at one point, he even killed his own father in a ddakji game.
The game of Russian Roulette that followed was one of the year’s most intense TV scenes (even though you knew G-hun had to survive it). Lee’s steely gaze with each pull of the trigger reminded us that Gi-hun was all in when it came to pursuing his agenda, no matter the cost (even if it’s his own life). The giddy/maniacal look that Gong gave us with the Recruiter’s every pull, meanwhile, made clear that maybe, just maybe, years of doing the game’s bidding had loosened some of this guy’s screws.
When it became evident that the Recruiter would lose this game, Lee infused Gi-hun’s final words to the man with a blend of hiss and vinegar that had you cheering from the couch at home. Gi-hun gloated to the Recruiter that with his imminent, fateful pull of the trigger, “I’ll have you admit one thing: You do whatever your master says. You run, bark, and wag your tail for them. You’re nothing more than their dog.” And with that, the dog put himself down.
Scroll down to see who got Honorable Mention shout-outs this week…
HONORABLE MENTION: Stephanie de Whalley
In Disney+’s Doctor Who: Joy to the World Christmas special, Fifteen couldn’t help but marvel at how “amazing” it was to stay put somewhere — for once — and enjoy “a whole year of you,” as in Sandringham Hotel manager Anita. And we totally see where he is coming from. Stephanie de Whalley, a Sussex-based actress and director, took the role of Anita and across an eight-minute, year-spanning sequence had us very much feeling the warm and special bond that formed between her and the Doctor, over game-filled “chair nights” and such. Once the year had passed, because the Doctor had “things to do,” de Whalley with her expression — a perfectly bittersweet mix of “missing you already” and “incredibly glad to have known you” — tugged at our hearts, as Anita did his. “Think of me sometime,” she asked her departing friend. Sigh. Yes, we will. We will. — M.W.M.
HONORABLE MENTION: Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford‘s Paul doesn’t share his feelings much. (Pretty rich for a therapist, right?) But in the season finale of Shrinking, the character’s worsening disease set him up for a vulnerable monologue that had the actor tugging on our heartstrings. While the gang shared what they were thankful for during Thanksgiving, Paul broke his typical norm to tell his friends and colleagues that he was done hiding his “failed, fragile body” from them. Ford grew visibly emotional, employing deep, sporadic breathing and a shaky voice as his character came clean. With teary eyes, Paul admitted he was a “lucky guy” and that he knew he’d make it through since he had people to lean on. Ford sold the heaviness of Paul’s admission like the legend he is, and by the time he reclaimed his seat, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. — Nick Caruso
Which performance(s) knocked your socks off this week? Tell us in the comments!
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